Written and edited by Norm Scott:
EDUCATE! ORGANIZE!! MOBILIZE!!!
Three pillars of The Resistance – providing information on current ed issues, organizing activities around fighting for public education in NYC and beyond and exposing the motives behind the education deformers. We link up with bands of resisters. Nothing will change unless WE ALL GET INVOLVED IN THE STRUGGLE!

Friday, February 2, 2018

Jacobin - The Case Against Cuomo - But UFT WIll Support Him Anyway

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is running for the Democratic nomination in 2020. He presents himself as the anti-Trump, the real progressive. But New York progressives don’t buy it. They know that Cuomo has helped Republicans retain control of the State Senate. The Assembly passes progresssive legislation, and the State Senate kills it. An”independent” group of Democrats in the senate vote with the GOP.

Cuomo has refused to help his own party. He likes divided government. Cuomo has been dreadful on education issues. He is the champion of charter schools. He has pushed tax credits for religious schools.

The Case Against Cuomo

The corrupt New York governor’s progressive reputation is a carefully stage-managed illusion.

Since Trump’s election, New York governor Andrew Cuomo, the son of popular former governor Mario Cuomo, has positioned himself as a leader of the #Resistance.

When Trump withdrew from the Paris Accords, Cuomo announced that he was joining with other blue-state governors “to sustain and strengthen existing climate programs . . . and implement new programs to reduce carbon emissions.” When Trump decided not to extend Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) in September, Cuomo urged his constituents to call their representatives and demand support for the DREAM Act.

Cuomo recruited Bernie Sanders to stand beside him as he unveiled his Excelsior Scholarship to New York public colleges, which Sanders called “revolutionary,” and he regularly reminds voters of his fights to legalize gay marriage equality, raise the age of criminal liability, and increase the state minimum wage.
New Yorkers get regular email notifications from Cuomo touting these moves and expressing the governor’s outrage at Trump’s misdeeds. But Andrew Cuomo is no Berniecrat. He’s merely figured out how to manipulate New York state’s opaque, oligarchical political system to give himself a left-liberal sheen without risking his connections to his richest donors.

And though the New York State Assembly passes some of the most left-wing bills in the country, their failure to become law is a central part of the Cuomo story and illustrates why New York progressives love to hate their governor. On paper, New York is a solidly blue state. Over 60 percent of voters chose Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama in the past three presidential elections, and the lower house of the state legislature has a solid Democratic majority. But a corrupt system of bipartisan collusion ensures Republican control of the upper chamber — and Cuomo encourages and benefits from this manufactured partisan split.

It’s an open secret in Albany that Cuomo is committed to maintaining Republican control of the state senate, where creative redistricting deliberately gives the upstate GOP minority an advantage. The governor could have used his veto power over districting maps in 2012, or used some of his vast campaign resources to elect a stronger Democratic majority in the upper chamber. Instead he has carefully maintained this structural barrier to the passage of progressive bills.

But gerrymandering alone isn’t enough to give the Republicans effective power over Albany’s agenda. For that, we can thank the Independent Democratic Conference (IDC), a group of eight Democratic senators who broke away from the Democratic caucus to forge a power-sharing agreement with Republicans. In 2012, after Democrats claimed a slim majority in the upper house, four of those Democrats — Jeffery Klein, Diane Savino, David Valesky, and David Carlucci — agreed to caucus with the Republicans, giving the GOP the majority. Since then, the IDC has doubled in size and remained loyal to the Republicans.

This arrangement benefits all the key political players — above all, Cuomo and his presidential ambitions.
Senate Republicans can control redistricting and enjoy the perks and resources of majority status, including the ability to control New York state’s over $150 billion budget. IDC members get pork for their districts, stipends for chairing committees, bigger budgets, expanded staff and access to big centrist Democratic donors (such as charter schools, real estate interests, and hedge funds). Cuomo continues to cut spending and prevent tax increases (particularly on high incomes and property taxes) to appease donors, and casts himself as a moderate progressive who gets things done.

Meanwhile, Democrats in the Assembly and Senate can take strong left-liberal positions on a number of social-democratic bills, like single payer, knowing full well that the Senate majority leader will never allow it the leave committee for a floor vote.

The Assembly blames the Senate. Democratic senators blame the IDC. The IDC blames the Democrats and the Republicans. And Cuomo is spared the need to veto popular social-democratic bills like single payer, which would tarnish his image with Democratic primary voters. This carefully choreographed blame game stymies all attempts by progressive activists to pass reforms. Meanwhile, millions of New Yorkers, including women, people of color, school children, low-income families, and the uninsured and under-insured suffer under Trump’s policies.

The Real Andrew Cuomo

Thanks to this bipartisan run-around, many of Cuomo’s key victories have been far more hollow than they might seem. For example, the Excelsior Scholarship program — already criticized for its extremely strict courseload and grade requirements and its “last-dollar” structure, requiring students to use all federal grants and scholarships toward tuition before state help kicks in — was made even worse by Republican meddling: the GOP added provisions requiring four years of state residency after graduation, or else the tuition scholarship reverts to a loan.

Republicans in 2017 also watered down the Raise the Age law, which was written to bring all sixteen- and seventeen-year-olds accused of crimes to family courts rather than criminal courts. But the final Raise the Age bill only redirected misdemeanor cases to family court, while nonviolent felony cases would go to a “youth section” of regular criminal court. Those accused of violent felonies will go through regular criminal courts and thus face the litany of abuses to which the criminal justice system exposes minors. This failure to “raise the age right” was heavily criticized by juvenile justice advocates and black state senators.

Perhaps in his presidential run Cuomo will claim to have evolved on key issues, as he did when he changed his stance on fracking. Following the cues of fellow would-be presidential frontrunners, Cuomo came out in favor of a national Medicare for All — but if Cuomo really wanted accessible medical care, the ultra-blue state where he actually has power would already have passed the New York Health Act.

Indeed, while Cuomo might blame the Republican senate or IDC for the bill’s failure, he has bragged elsewhere about his ability to create bipartisan coalitions to pass his pet projects. In Cuomo’s 2014 political memoir, All Things Possible: Setbacks and Success in Politics and Life — itself a focus of controversy thanks to its huge cash advance from the publisher and dismal sales, resulting in a personal profit of about $250 per book — he discussed his skilled and effective maneuvering to pass gay marriage in 2011. Cuomo convinced the reluctant Senate leader at the time to release the bill to a floor vote and made sure he had sufficient Republican Senate support. On health care, meanwhile, he’s chosen not to use political capital to be a bold progressive leader. Cuomo’s timid posture speaks volumes about his actual political positioning.

The case against Cuomo lies not only in his association with the unpopular centrist wing of the Democratic Party, but also in how he governs. Despite claiming a mandate to clean up Albany, Cuomo functions as “an old school political boss, who exploits and worsens the most dysfunctional components of NY state politics to make it worse” according to Bill Samuels, a former friend of the Cuomo family and founder of Effective NY, which advocates for reform of Albany.

His “three men in a room” style of state governance perpetuates the oligarchical tendencies of New York government. He created and quickly shut down a high-powered anti-corruption body, the Moreland Commission, in 2013 when it became clear that he might be implicated in the commission’s own inquiries. This became a major talking point for his 2014 primary challenger, Zephyr Teachout, who surprised observers by claiming over 35 percent of the primary vote on a “shoestring budget” and with no institutional support. And just like Hillary Clinton in 2016, Cuomo had a clear enthusiasm problem, winning votes but little excitement or energy.
Those who vote for Democrats should avoid repeating the mistakes of Hillary Clinton’s overly confident 2016 campaign. Despite his posturing to the contrary, Andrew Cuomo follows the worst aspects of the Clinton playbook. According to January 2018 campaign filings, Governor Cuomo has over $30 million in campaign funds, relying heavily on large donors. A New York Times analysis of his most recent filing shows that only 0.2 percent of his donors give less than $200 – testimony to the complete absence of grassroots excitement or support for Cuomo.

In contrast, the average contribution was $4,800, with large corporations and real estate interests providing donations well above $100,000. These real estate donations occurred through the LLC loophole in NY campaign law, a law that Cuomo himself has denounced as “egregious.” This contrasts not only with Bernie Sanders’s extremely successful small donor fundraising experience, but also the recent moves by mainstream Democrats to rely more on smaller grassroots donations.

We are currently about a year away from when candidates will declare their presidential intentions, and Cuomo will likely continue positioning himself as the #Resistance leader America needs, as he did in his speech to the New York City Women’s March, and as he implied by staging his photo-op with Bernie Sanders. But if we want to see what New York’s governor really thinks of the insurgent left, we should heed his own words in the concluding chapter of his 2014 memoir. Cuomo rejected economic populism within the Democratic party as the impulse of an “extreme left” that seeks to “punitively [raise] taxes on the rich and [transfer] the money to the poor.” He equated supporters of left redistributive measures — “fueled by emotion and truly outraged at the unfairness of the system” — with Tea Party extremists, holding views regarded as foolhardly by sensible, moderate New Yorkers. He dismissed Occupy Wall Street and its “incendiary, divisive” rhetoric, seeking to demonize the very wealthy.

1 comment:

Comments are welcome. Irrelevant and abusive comments will be deleted, as will all commercial links. Comment moderation is on, so if your comment does not appear it is because I have not been at my computer (I do not do cell phone moderating).

UFT Election Vote Comparison: 2004-10

A Personal Historical Perspective

Why Karen Lewis Reads Ed Notes

"A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

What media call "philanthropy" for the public schools are actually seed monies to establish a private "market" in publicly-financed education - an enterprise worth trillions if successfully penetrated by corporate America. Cory Booker, one of the "New Black Leaders" financed by the filthy rich, is key to creating a "nationwide corporate-managed schools network paid for by public funds but run by private managers.

"Ed Reformers" want to cash in on public education and to control its content and outcome, not improve it. Provide great education? Baby boomers had as close as this country has ever gotten to it when we were growing up. The Ed Reform Movement has no interest in seeing such a well-educated, democratically astute population ever again.

History of the UFT Pre-Weingarten Years

This award-winning series of articles by Jack Schierenbeck originally appeared in the New York Teacher in 1996 and 1997.

Naturally, from a certain point of view. But, despite certain biases, Schierenbeck, a great guy, was one of the best NY Teacher reporters so this is worth reading. Jack suffered a debilitating stroke many years ago (I used to get secret donations to ed notes from him through a 3rd source.)

“The schism in the union over radical politics [is] a major reason for stalling the growth of a teacher union for decades.” Revolutionary politics and ideology take center stage, as the original Teachers Union becomes a battlefield, pitting leftist against leftist and splitting the union.

Clarence Taylor's "Reds at the Blackboard" focused on the old Teachers Union which disbanded in 1964 after suffering from anti-left attacks.

Effective Union Organizing

A video series put together by Jason Mann from the British Columbia Federation of Teachers about social media and how to use it for effective union organizing.

The first series was called New Media For Union Activists Roadmap and it's still available on-line at:http://www.newmediabootcamp.ca/welcome/I watched some of them and need to rewatch as they are loaded with information.

The second series started last week and it's called "Online Campaigning for Union Activists"

You Don't Have A Choice - Join the Revolt

Hedges says, There are no excuses left. Either you join the revolt taking place on Wall Street and in the financial districts of other cities across the country or you stand on the wrong side of history.

Ex-Harlem Success Teacher Comments on Eva the Diva

I am a former Harlem Success teacher. Not many people who work/worked for her like her very much. I once made the comment that she is very nice when I first was hired. Two of her closest colleague responded immediately almost in unison, "Eve is not nice!" Over time I realized that there was a lot of political games going on. Another colleague once said to me that he was tired of "being part of a political campaign." Sending out 15,000 applications for only 400 seats in a school is reprehensible. The money that paid for those mass mailings could have paid the yearly salary of another teacher not to mention the heartache of all those parents who applied but did not get a spot. She does good work trying to give disadvantaged students a quality public school education but at a great cost to staff AND the school's educational budget! school budget.

GEM's Julie Cavanagh Debates E4E member on NY1 on LIFO and Seniority

Davis Guggenheim Compared to Riefenstahl

“Waiting for Superman" is the second most intellectually dishonest piece of documentary work I have seen. It is surpassed only by Leni Riefenstahl's "Triumph of the Will," the pro-Hitler propaganda classic, in that regard. Uses personal narratives of adorable children to create narrative suspense that overrides public policy discussion with pure emotion in unscrupulous attack on teachers and their unions, among others

Timothy TysonProfessor of African American Studies and HistoryDuke University

A Familiar Voice on Unions

"We must close union offices, confiscate their money and put their leaders in prison. We must reduce workers salaries and take away their right to strike"- Adolf Hitler, May 2, 1933

How Teaching Experience Makes a Difference

Even as New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Michelle Rhee and others around the nation are arguing for experienced teachers to be laid off regardless of seniority, every single study shows teaching experience matters. In fact, the only two observable factors that have been found consistently to lead to higher student achievement are class size and teacher experience, so that it’s ironic that these same individuals are trying to undermine both.- Leonie Haimson on Parents Across America web site

Outsource our children

Weingarten/Gates Foundation announce drone-driven teacher evaluation

According to a press release issued by the Gates Foundation, the AFT and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, these three have entered a ground-breaking partnership to evaluate teachers utilizing the drone technology that has revolutionized warfare in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. A bird-size device floats up to 400 feet above a classroom and instantly beams live video of teachers in action to agents at desks at Teacher Quality Inspection Stations established by the AFT and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute.

When asked if the drones were authorized to drop bombs on teachers who exhibit inadequacy, Chester E. Finn, Jr., president of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, replied, "Don't be ridiculous. Gates money puts other methods at our disposal."

Randi Weingarten, president of the 1.5-million-member American Federation of Teachers said the powerful union has signed on to the drone project...

Teacher Value-Added Data Dumping by Norm Scott

The Real Reason Behind Push for Standardized Tests: It's All About the Adults

On standardized testing in our schools

A must read article about the standardized test industry.Written by an insider who has worked as a test scorer, the article outlines a multinational industry based on an army of temporary workers paid by the piece at $0.30 to $0.70 per test, translated in the need to grade 40 tests per hour to make a $12 salary. The article goes on to show how the companies gauge the grading "results" based on the need to ensure new contracts to continue profiting off of our youth. The original article is from Monthly Review. Here it is on Schools Matter blog.

From Sharon Higgins

Parallels between America today and Germany in the 1920's and early 30's

"Resentment and obstruction are all the right wing in America have to peddle. Their policies are utterly discredited. Their ideology - even by its own standards - is a sham. They are so bereft of leaders, their de facto leader is a former drug addicted, thrice-divorced radio talk show host. That is literally the best they can muster. But they have built a national franchise inciting the downwardly mobile to blame the government, not the right, for their problems, exactly as Hitler did in the 1920s."

Chicago View of Unity/UFT on Charters

After many meetings and debates, the Chicago delegation succeeded in working with the New York United Federation of Teachers, Local 2 (UFT) to push the AFT to take stronger stands on charter school accountability and school closings — though many delegates from Chicago would have liked the language to have been even stronger.

Generally speaking, the New York delegation represented organizing charters as the best model for handling their role in reshaping unions, despite the fact that according to many reports few charter schools in New York have been organized as is the case in Chicago. This logic is the same touted by the Progressive Caucus of the AFT. The few that have been organized are a part of the UFT local though they have separate contracts negotiated with the help of UFT. The Chicago delegation reflection the mindset that allowing new charters to continue to proliferate while attempting to organize existing charters is an end game in which public schools and the union lose.

Ed Notes Greatest Hits: HSA Rally and Founding of GEM

Angel Gonzalez and I attended that rally and used the footage to promote our conference on Mar. 28, 2009, which is where the concept of a group like GEM emerged. Until then we had basically been a committee of ICE working with the NYCORE high stakes testing group. The actions of Eva and crew helped spawn GEM. Mommie Dearest!!

I have more video somewhere. I was hoping to get Leni Riefenstahl to edit it but she died. We would have called it "Triumph of the Hedge Fund Operators."

Video of Chicago's George Schmidt and CORE Shredding Arne Duncan and the Chicago Corporate Model

Great Post on Teacher Quality at the Morton School

I'm very tired of the myth that schools are bursting at the seams with apathetic, unskilled, surly, child-hating losers who can't get jobs doing anything else. I recently figured that, counting high school and college where one encounters many teachers in the course of a year, I had well over 100 teachers in my lifetime, and I can only say that one or two truly had no place being in a classroom.